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India is one of the most religiously diverse nations in the world, with religion playing a central role in the lives of most Indians.

80% of the people in India are Hindu, considered one of the oldest religious and philosophical systems in the world. Islam is practiced by 13.4% of all Indians, Christianity by 2.4%, and Sikhism by 1.86%. Buddhism and Jainism both arose on the Indian subcontinent and have a world-wide presence; in addition, Zoroastrianism and Judaism have a long history in India, but their present-day numbers are small.

Demographics

Major religions

Hinduism is the largest religion in India, counting approximately 900 million adherents, comprising 80.4% of the population. The main holy books of Hinduism are the Vedas (its foundation) and the Upanishads. Hindus are allowed to worship (or practice their bhagavat-dharma) God in any form and so many Hindus have even have a specific Purana for their deity (i.e. Kali Purana). Islam arrived in India as early as the 8th century A.D. During the following years, Islam contributed greatly to the cultural enhancement of an already rich Indian culture, shaping not only the shape of Northern Indian classical music (Hindustani, a melding of Indian and Middle Eastern elements) but encouraging a grand tradition of Urdu (a melding of Hindi, Arabic and Persian languages) literature, both religious and secular. As of 2001, there were about 160 million Muslims in India (the second largest population in the world, after Indonesia), which is 16.4% of the population. The highest concentrations are in the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Kerala, West Bengal and parts of the Gangetic plain. Sunni Islam is the denomination practiced by the majority of Indian Muslims.

There are over 17 million Catholics in India, which represents 1.5% of the total population. Today Christianity is the third largest religion of India making up 2–2.9% of the population. Christianity is prevalent in South and North-east India. Buddhists form majority populations in the Indian states of Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, and the Ladakh region of Jammu & Kashmir. In all, around 11 million Buddhists live in India today. Jainism, is one of the four major Dharmic religions originating in India. Jains comprises only 0.4% (around 4.2 million) of India's population. According to the 2001 Census of India, Jains have the highest literacy rate of any religious group—94.1%, in contrast to the national average of 64.8%. As of 2001 there were 19.3 million Sikhs in India. Punjab is the spiritual home of Sikhs and is the only state in India where Sikhs form a majority. There are also significant populations of Sikhs in the neighboring states of Haryana and New Delhi.

As of the census of 2001, the Parsis (followers of Zoroastrianism in India) represent approximately 0.06% of the total population of India, with a concentration in and around the city of Mumbai. There are several tribal religions in India, such as Donyi-Polo, Rangfrah, Mahima. About 2.2 million people in India follow the Bahá'í Faith which is the largest community of Bahá'ís in the world. Ayyavazhi, prevalent in Southern India, is officially considered a sect within Hinduism, and its followers are counted as Hindus in the census. A very minor community of Jews is present in Kerala and Maharashtra. India is also home to a considerable number of atheists and agnostics.

History

Evidences of Prehistoric religions in India are sparse. The people of the Indus Valley Civilization (c. 3300–1700 BC in Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra river valleys of the Indian subcontinent) probably worshipped a Mother goddess symbolizing fertility. Excavations of Indus Valley Civilization sites show seals with animals, ‘fire‑altars’ (indicating rituals associated with fire); a linga-cum-yoni of the same type as is worshipped now by Hindus has also been found. Hinduism's origins include cultural elements of the Indus valley civilisation, and the Vedic religion of the Indo-Aryans, and other Indian civilizations. The oldest surviving text of Hinduism is the Rigveda, which is dated to 1700–1100 BCE. After the Vedic period came the Epic and Puranic periods. The epic poems Ramayana and Mahabharata were written roughly from 400 BCE to 200 CE, although they were transmitted orally for hundreds of years prior to this period. During the Iron Age in India (when sixteen great kingdoms, the Mahajanapadas, flourished), several schools of thought arose and developed in Hindu philosophy such as Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Purva-Mimamsa and Vedanta.

According to the Buddhist tradition, the historical Buddha Siddharta Gautama was born to the Shakya clan, at the beginning of the Magadha period (546–324 BCE), in the plains of Lumbini, in what is now southern Nepal. Mahavira (599–527 BC, though possibly 549–477 BC) is the name most commonly used to refer to the Indian sage Vardhamana who established what are today considered to be the central tenets of Jainism. Both Buddhism and Janism did have some elements of Hinduism. Buddhism reached great heights during the reign of Asoka the Great of the Mauryan Empire, who unified the Indian subcontinent in the 3rd century BCE. He also sent missionaries to spread the dharma to places such as Afghanistan, Central Asia, the Middle East and even Egypt. Buddhism declined in India following the loss of patronage due to the fall of sympathetic rulers such as the kings of Magadha, Kosala and the Kushan. The period between the 400 BCE and 1000 CE saw gains by Hinduism at the expense of Buddhism. Buddhism subsequently became effectively extinct in India, after a series of invasions in the Muslim conquest of the Indian subcontinent.

Though Islam came to India in the early 7th century with the advent of Arab traders, it started to become a major religion during the Muslim conquest in the Indian subcontinent, which gained momentum during the eleventh century. During the Delhi Sultanate (1206–1526) and the Mughal period, Islam spread in India.

Religious pilgrimages

Buddhism

• Bodh Gaya, Bihar - The site of the enlightenment of Gautama Buddha
• Sarnath, outside Varanasi, Bihar - The site of the first sermon
• Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh - the site of the Buddha's paranibbana

These are three of the four holiest sites in Buddhism. The fourth, Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha, is now in southern Nepal.

• Patna, Bihar - Formerly known as Pataliputra, it was the seat of the Mauryan empire and a significant Buddhist centre
• Rajgir, Bihar - Formerly known as Rajagaha, it was the capital of Magadha, ruled by King Bimbisara, one of the most prominent monarchs and supporters during the lifetime of the Buddha
• Nalanda, Bihar - Site of an ancient Buddhist university, destroyed by Bakhtiyar Khalji during Islamic attacks
• Sravasti, Uttar Pradesh - Formerly known as Savatthi, it was the capital of Kosala, ruled by King Pasenadi, one of the most prominent monarchs and supporters during the lifetime of the Buddha
• Vaishali, Bihar - Seat of a republican state of the Lichchavis, prominent supporters of the Buddha. Site of the Second Buddhist Council

The name of Bihar is derived from vihara, meaning monastery, such was the association of the area with Buddhism. In addition to these sites which were visited by the Buddha, other sites in India have become notable

• Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh - Site of a large stupa built by Asoka, it also stored the relics of Sariputra and Mahamoggallana, the two chief disciples of the Buddha
• Ajanta and Ellora, Maharashtra - the site of intricate cave paintings depicting Buddhism
• Nagarjunakonda and Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh - former sites of Buddhist education

There are a proliferation of Tibetan Buddhist sites in northern India, in the Himalayan foothills

• Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh
• Rumtek, Sikkim
• Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh
• Tabo, Himachal Pradesh
• Leh, Ladakh

Religious festivals

Religious festivals hold great importance in the Indian way of life; however no religious festivals are considered as national holiday. Hindu festivals of Diwali, Ganesh Chaturthi, Holi, Durga puja, Ugadi, Dussehra, Sankranthi/Pongal and the Islamic festivals of Eid-ul-Fitr, Eid-ul-Adha, Muharram, and Ramadan are the most popular religious festivals in India. Christmas, Buddha Jayanti, Guru Nanak's Birthday are also celebrated nationwide, and are particularly popular among corresponding religious populations. A number of festivals are common to most parts of India. In addition, many states and regions have local festivals depending on prevalent religious and linguistic demographics.

Major thinkers

This section needs expansion. You can help by making an edit requestadding to it . (April 2007)

India has been home to a large number of religious thinkers and spiritualists. A major reason for this has been the tolerant and liberalist traditions inbuilt in ancient Indian society. Another reason is the huge diversity of people found here. A majority of the religious thinkers have advocated themselves as reformers and not as prophets or founders of new religions.

The most important religious figures include Buddha, Mahavira and Guru Nanak Dev. They were the founders of the Buddhist, Jain and Sikh religions.

Hindu thinkers

Major thinkers include:

• Ram Mohan Roy - He started the Brahmo Samaj aimed at developing a universal religion in the nineteenth century.
• Swami Dayananda - He started the Arya Samaj, a version of Hinduism which is opposed to as polytheism, idolatry, iconolatry, animal sacrifice, ancestor worship, pilgrimage, priestcraft, the belief in avatars or incarnations of God, the hereditary caste system, untouchability and child marriage on the grounds that all these lack Vedic sanction.
• Swami Vivekananda - A disciple of Ramakrishna, he started the Ramakrishna Mission, a monastic movement with great stress on humanitarian work.
• Sri Aurobindo - He developed a method of Yoga that is supposed to transform human nature to divine life.

Other important figures include Basava, Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi and Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.

Muslim Thinkers

Major Muslim thinkers are:

• Moinuddin Chishti - He started the Chisttiya order in India.
• Fariduddin Ganjshakar - Another Sufi saint in the Chisttiya order whose teachings have also been included in Sikhism.
• Amir Khusro - A Sufi poet, and disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya, he is credited with being the founder of both Hindustani classical music and Qawwali(the devotional music of the Sufis).

Other important figures include Kabir, Ali Hujwiri, Akbar and Mirza Ghulam Ahmad.

Buddhism

• Mahakasyapa - patriarch of the Buddhist sangha
• Nagarjuna - Mahayana philosopher, known for sunyata
• Asoka - royal patron
• Bodhidharma - 28th patriarch, founder of Zen, introducing Buddhism to China and East Asia

Other important thinkers

Ashoka, is an important figure in Buddhist history because of his efforts for spreading the religion. The Sikh Gurus undoubtedly were very important in propounding the tenets of Sikhism. Thomas, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus, is believed to have preached and finally died in India. Saint Francis Xavier also developed a Jesuit missionary method that left a significant impression upon the missionary history of India.

Religion and politics

Politics in India has been influenced by the religious aspirations of the public from time to time. The BJP, a Hindu nationalist party, established itself on the national political scene after its leaders associated themselves with the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, which is basically a religious controversy.

A high degree of casteism and communalism had prevailed in British India and had been politicised often (such as during the notification of the Govt of India Act, 1935). Due to the high degree of oppression faced by the lower castes, the Constitution of India included provisions for affirmative action for certain sections of Indian society. Growing disenchantment with the Hindu caste system has however led thousands of Dalits(or untouchables) to embrace Buddhism and Christianity in recent years. In response many BJP ruled states have introduced laws to check such conversions on the ground that these are forced and allured.

A well known accusation that Indian political parties make for their rivals is that they play vote bank politics, meaning give political support to issues for the sole purpose of gaining the votes of members of a particular community. Both the Congress Party and the BJP have been accused of exploiting the people by indulging in vote bank politics. The Shah Bano case, a divorce law suit, generated much controversy when the Congress was accused of appeasing the Muslim community by bringing in a parliamentary amendment to negate the Supreme Court's decision. There have been allegations that sensing an consolidation of Hindu votes against the Congress, its Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, ordered the opening of locks in the Ram Temple at Ayodhya to appease the Hindus. After the 2002 Gujarat violence, there were allegations of political parties indulging in vote bank politics. During an election campaign in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP allegedly released an inflammatory CD targeting Muslims. This was condemned by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) as playing the worst kind of vote bank politics.

See also

• Religion in present-day nations and states — a list of religion by country articles
• Religion by country — contains links to articles and subcategories related to religion by country
• List of basic topics of religion — has major religious concepts and religion-specific topics

Notes

1. Census of India. Govt. site with detailed data from 2001 census.
2. http://www.geocities.com/ifihhome/articles/bbl002.html Why Perpetuate Myths ? - A Fresh Look at Ancient Indian History By Archaeologist B.B. Lal
3. T. Oberlies (Die Religion des Rgveda, Vienna 1998. p. 158) based on 'cumulative evidence' sets wide range of 1700–1100.
4. Robin Rinehart, Contemporary Hinduism 28 (2004) ISBN 1-57607-905-8
5. Online BBC News Article: Religion & Ethics - Hinduism, last accessed 2 January 2007
6. Dalits in conversion ceremony. Retrieved on April 18 2007.
7. Constitution doesn’t permit forced conversions : Naqvi. Retrieved on April 18 2007.
8. . Retrieved on April 18 2007.
9. . Retrieved on April 18 2007.
10. Togadia wants parties to stop 'vote bank politics'. Retrieved on April 18 2007.
11. Worst kind of vote bank politics. Retrieved on April 18 2007.

References

External links

• Census of India 2001 Data on Religion

• Articles to be expanded from April 2007
• Religion in India